This article appears in the September 3, 2021 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
[Print version of this article]
International Briefs
CGTN Produces Powerful Video of Zepp-LaRouche on Afghanistan
CGTN has produced a 6-minute video of excerpts from Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s keynote at the Schiller Institute’s July 31 conference on Afghanistan and the end of empire, adding graphics from its own archives. On Aug. 20, CGTN posted it on the China state-affiliated media’s Twitter page, T-House, under the title: “Afghanistan: The Bright Future for the Coming Cooperation of the Great Powers,” with an introductory paragraph: “With the troop withdrawal of the #US and #NATO, warmongers should realize that no military solution can succeed in #Afghanistan. Geopolitical manipulation must be ended and replaced by the application of the Five Principles of #Peaceful Coexistence, says @Zepp-LaRouche.”
CGTN also transcribed the video and posted it as an article on its website.
U.S. CFR Hopes Chaos Can Prevent BRI in Afghanistan
Jennifer Hillman and David Sacks, co-directors of an “Independent Task Force” sponsored by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), posted an article Aug. 24 on the CFR blog insisting that “one should not expect that significant new Chinese investment will materialize [in Afghanistan]. At a time when BRI [Belt and Road] is retrenching, investing in Afghanistan is simply too risky and does not have enough economic upside.”
This sounds like wishful thinking rather than real analysis. The security situation in Afghanistan outside of the chaos at the Kabul airport has not deteriorated with the American pullout. China is not going into Afghanistan alone. It is coordinating with Pakistan, which has considerable influence with the Taliban. China is also coordinating with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
In the best scenario, if the Taliban deliver on their promises to fight terrorism, Afghanistan can be integrated into the BRI projects for Pakistan.
Chinese Daily Lays Out Significance of PLA Military Drill Near Taiwan
The semi-official Chinese daily Global Times published a sharp warning Aug. 17 about the implications of the PLA exercises near Taiwan, if U.S.-Taiwanese separatist actions continue. The maneuvers, the article reported, “sent a clear and powerful warning to the U.S. and the Taiwan secessionists.” The explicit mention of the U.S. as the source of the threat, by Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson of the command, was highly significant. “It is rare that the PLA names the U.S. as a target of its military exercises, observers said.”
The Global Times article went on: “Military observers have predicted that in a possible scenario in which the PLA reunifies the island of Taiwan by force, it would first launch electromagnetic and cyber warfare on the island, soft-killing many of its facilities, then rain down missiles and rockets on the island’s military bases and ports.... What the PLA practiced on Tuesday would come next, as warships and warplanes would seize control of the sea and air, destroy hostile vessels and aircraft that survived the initial wave of attacks, penetrate and neutralize hostile air defenses, further weaken hostile ground resistance, and lay down the foundation for the amphibious landing troops to come, the expert said.”
Anglo-American Powers Escalate for ‘Ukraine Repeat’ in Belarus
President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and the U.S. Treasury were busy on Aug. 9 slapping new sanctions on 44 Belarus individuals and state-owned companies, for alleged violations of “democracy”—punishments imposed on the first anniversary of the flop of their favored candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, in the Belarus presidential elections. The UK and Canada joined the U.S. in imposing similar measures yesterday, which Blinken welcomed, as he also praised the Biden administration’s “close coordination with Lithuania and Poland.”
President Biden stated that more sanctions are required, because, “As I told the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, we stand with the people of Belarus as they bravely pursue their democratic aspirations,” while the White House cited a 2006 George W. Bush Executive Order as the legal basis for the sanctions.
It was the European People’s Party (EPP) group of Christian Democratic parties in the European Parliament that made explicit the intent to rehash a “Maidan” style coup, with the EPP statement urging the European Union to adopt a “master plan” to kick off a “democratic revolution” against the Lukashenko government, based on its experience in dealing with Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.
After ‘Global Britain’ Fails in Afghanistan, COP26 Will Be Its Next Test
In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is taking hit after hit in the aftermath of the collapse of the NATO project in Afghanistan. The Evening Standard, in an unsigned editorial posted Aug. 25, made clear that the big test for Boris Johnson is the upcoming COP26 climate change conference: “If ever there was a test of the government’s pledge to ‘do more on the international stage,’ this will be it.”
Leading up to that point, the Standard stated that Johnson had claimed that “Getting Brexit done will enable us to do more on the international stage.” So, how well is the government doing in delivering on this promise? it asked.
While the Afghanistan “debacle is largely made in Washington,” the crisis in the UK is intense, according to the editors, who listed: “‘Global Britain’—instead of a credible foreign policy; cutting the aid budget; a Foreign Secretary who was on holiday as Afghanistan was falling; relations with the EU in the deep freeze; and little to show from the UK’s presidency of the G7.” They conclude, “If this is the UK doing ‘more’ on the international stage, what would doing ‘less’ amount to?”
A Real Climate Scientist Warns of Global Cooling
Astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon of the Solar, Stellar and Planetary Sciences Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics—a frequent speaker at conferences debunking climate hysteria who has been heavily persecuted by the press—has urged his fellow scientists to pay closer attention to the Sun’s activity, which now suggests several decades of global cooling, rather than warming.
“What we predict is that the next 20–30 years will be cold. It will be cold, so it will be a very interesting thing for the IPCC to confront,” he said July 26 in an interview with The New American’s Alex Newman. Dr. Soon explained that the Sun is far less active than during the 1980s and 1990s, and is in a “weakened state, [which should last until] around 2050. The whole climate system is powered 99.1% by the Sun’s energy. We would have a lot more problems were the planet to cool rather than warm.”
Humanity can solve many problems, including overheating, but the problem of a “little ice age” like that of the 1700s? “Those problems are much harder to solve,” Dr. Soon said.
Gordon Brown Hits EU’s ‘Neocolonial’ Withholding of Vaccine from Africa
In an Aug. 16 op-ed in The Guardian, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown exposed what he called the European Union’s “neo-colonial approach” to supplying COVID-19 vaccines, particularly to Africa. Under the headline, “The World Is Making Billions of COVID Vaccine Doses, So Why Is Africa Not Getting Them?” he wrote: “I have learned from African leaders that, this month and next, about 10 million single-shot Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines filled and finished at the Aspen factory in South Africa, will be exported to Europe, at the very time that Africa is grappling with its deadliest wave of COVID-19 infections yet.”
“Compared to the swift development of the path-breaking COVID vaccines, getting shots into all the world’s arms should be straightforward. But vaccine nationalism—and Europe’s neocolonial approach to global health—is dividing the world into rich and protected people, who live, and those who are poor, unprotected and at risk of dying.” Brown went on to note that 45 out of 54 African nations would miss their vaccination targets and that rich countries would not be safe until there was mass vaccination in every country.
Build Haiti’s Infrastructure Now!
In February 2010, Lyndon LaRouche outlined an emergency program to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure—viable roads, airports, reliable transportation, hospitals—in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.
That was not done, and now, after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake of Aug. 14, The New York Times reported Aug. 19 that delivery of international aid, medical assistance, and basic supplies is “patchy and limited.” Almost nothing is getting to remote villages, because aid can only be directed to population centers close to airstrips where airplanes can land. The parts of the country most severely affected by the earthquake are home to about 1.5 million people—80 miles from the capital of Port-au-Prince, to which overland transportation is a risky venture, thanks to poor roads and armed gangs.
To date, the death toll stands at 2,189, with 12,000 injured and 687,000 in need of humanitarian assistance.
In her weekly press conference on Aug. 18, Dr. Carissa Etienne, Director of the Pan-American Health Organization, reported that 24 healthcare facilities were damaged or destroyed in the three departments hardest hit by the earthquake. She called on the international community to respond quickly to meet Haiti’s “immense needs” for healthcare personnel, supplies, equipment, and patient transportation.
